1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the general art of furniture, and to the particular field of movable and collapsible furniture.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Attending sporting events, as well as attending concerts, theater, and the like, are extremely popular forms of entertainment. In all of these situations, people are seated for at least part of the performance. Therefore, the design of seats used at such events have received attention in the furniture art. There have been several innovations in this art in recent times. For example, stadium seating has been used in theaters and the like.
However, while there have been advances in several areas of such seating, there has been one area that seems to have been overlooked and is in need of improvement. That area involves the cleaning of a stadium or a theater after the people leave. People often eat at their seats before, during, and after an event. In fact, such action is often greatly encouraged by most event promoters. While food consumption may have many advantages, the debris left behind is a disadvantage. Clean-up crews often spend many hours cleaning a stadium or a theater after an event. This is a costly and time-consuming operation and may affect the scheduling of later events at the same venue. Therefore, anything that will improve the efficiency of a clean-up operation may have significant advantages.
Cleaning around and under seats is especially difficult and time-consuming. Workers often must actually get down on their hands and knees to be sure that areas under all seats are completely clean. This difficulty is exacerbated when there is a long row of seat. Gaining access to the areas beneath seats in a long row of seats can be very difficult and awkward.
Therefore, there is a need for a means to make cleaning under seats in a row of seats easy and expeditious.
It is a main object of the present invention to provide furniture that is easily manipulated for cleaning purposes.
It is another object of the present invention to provide rows of seats that are easily manipulated.
It is another object of the present invention to provide rows of seats that can be easily manipulated from a use orientation to an orientation which provides access to the area under the seats in the row of seats.
These, and other, objects are achieved by an anchored, releasably tiltable row of seats which comprises a support surface; a row of seat units having a plurality of side-by-side seat units on the support surface; an operating bar fixedly connected to each seat unit of the plurality of seat units, the operating bar having a longitudinal axis and a first end having key-accommodating elements therein; an operating bar support bracket mounted on the support surface, the operating bar being rotationally mounted on the operating bar support bracket to be rotatable about the longitudinal axis of the operating bar; a key element sized and shaped to be accommodated in the key-accommodating elements of the operating bar to rotate the operating bar via the key element. The seats units of the plurality of seat units being movable with the operating bar to move between a first orientation having a seat of each seat unit oriented parallel to the support surface and a second orientation having the seat of each seat unit oriented at an oblique angle to the support surface.
The seat units can thus be oriented in a use orientation for accommodating seating, but can be easily moved into a cleaning orientation in which a great part of each of the seat units is in an orientation that frees the space beneath the seat units for access. Cleaning, or the like, can thus be effected beneath the out-of-the way seat units.